1959 Cadillac Superior Hearse

"Maude"

I bought this 1959 Cadillac Superior Landau hearse in July 2017, from a body shop in Los Angeles, CA. These are extremely rare vehicles, and I couldn't miss the opportunity to own one. The hearse had been halfway through a restoration at the body shop, so when I bought it I arranged for the shop to continue work and paint it within the next couple months. Almost a full year and thousands of dollars later, almost nothing had been accomplished. The shop was basically slapping on a coat of primer over filler over primer over filler, and sending me a bill every month. Not surprisingly, the shop went out of business, and they moved the hearse into a storage unit. After listening to a few months of promises from them about finding a new shop and finishing the project, I moved the storage unit into my name and decided cut ties with the shop completely.

This was not my first time being burned, but now I had a real mess of a very large car, totally disassembled, with tons of loose parts. After diligent research, I found a shop in Anaheim that seemed to be what I was looking for. In June 2018, I got her and her parts all moved over to a new shop in Anaheim, intent on getting this rare beauty back on the road as soon as possible.

Delivery to Anaheim shop

Some assembly required

So far I have been very happy with the quality, pace, and communication from this shop. The bodywork essentially had to be started over, and sanded all the way back down. She needed to have fairly extensive rust repair done, that had not been previously addressed, and some previous repairs needed to be cut/dug out and redone. Her enormous body panels were extensively worked over and smoothed out, with very impressive results. After several months of repair and prep, she got her final coat of black paint in September 2019.

With bodywork done, 2020 started with engine work, new brakes, and electrical system work. We also discovered during parts inventory, that a lot of pieces are missing from the car. Some of these parts were on all 1959 Cadillacs, and can be found fairly easily. Many of these parts however, are hearse specific, and actually coach-builder specific, making trim pieces and exterior chrome near impossible to find. I am still in the process of gathering parts while the shop wraps up the mechanical and electrical.